EPIC HIGHLIGHTS:
***** Even as his pine coffin was placed in the hearse, a panicked crowd of Lubavitch faithful chanted prayers for Schneerson to rise and reveal himself to be the Messiah for whom Jews have waited since antiquity.
**** Women put away the tambourines they had brought to shake in ecstasy at the first glimpse of the Messiah.
**** many of the young men who were his disciples said they were in a state of shock and disbelief that he had died without revealing himself as the Messiah, but others repeated the story of how Moses went to Mount Sinai and failed to return on time, leading many of his tribe to think he had died, only to come back later.
**** “Some people have a strong belief the rebbe will rise up and bring us redemption,” said Nahum Cohen, a Schneerson follower in the village. “It’s what the rebbe said. Just now we have to wait. I never believed this would happen.”
**** As Schneerson’s following grew, almost all Lubavitchers came to believe that he was this generation’s candidate to redeem mankind. But as the rebbe lay ailing, a debate arose within the Lubavitch community about whether he would declare himself the Messiah or whether the world was not ready to accept him.
**** Standing in the rain that came and went as Lubavitchers waited for the casket to emerge yesterday, Daniel Jacobs, 44, said, “A lot of people are obviously going to be very disappointed that the rebbe is not standing up from his bed and proclaiming himself to be {the Messiah}…..
Yechi!